New notebook battery recall by Lenovo

Stephen Withers
Friday, 02 March 2007 02:31

Your IT - Home IT

Lenovo has recalled more than 200,000 ThinkPad batteries sold between November 2005 and February 2007.

Affected ThinkPad models are the R60, R60e, T60, T60p, Z60m, Z61e, Z61m and Z61p, but only nine-cell batteries with the part number FRU P/N 92P1131 are being recalled. About half of the affected batteries were sold in the US.

The problem is that if the the notebook is struck "forcefully" on the corner, the battery may overheat.

"Lenovo has received four reports of batteries overheating and damaging the notebook. This caused damage to the notebook computers, minor property damage and, in one case, minor eye irritation to one consumer," the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said in the recall notice. Lenovo's web site mentions five incidents.

The batteries concerned were made in China by Sanyo. Unlike last year's large-scale recalls of batteries made by Sony, the problem is not related to an internal cell defect.

Sony Lithium Ion batteries are popular with portable computing and electronics companies because of their abundant storage capabilities. To achieve the level of storage, however, the Sony batteries use Cobalt Oxide as the material for the positive electrode (cathode), which can become unstable in the case of a fault in the manufacturing process that leads to an internal short. Millions of Sony batteries that contained tiny metal particles capable of causing a short circuit were shipped by major notebook vendors including Dell, Apple and Lenovo.

Lenovo is replacing the Sanyo batteries free of charge and is providing prepaid shipping containers for the return of recalled units.

The company advises "If your battery has been recalled and you intend to transport your ThinkPad or use it in a manner that may subject it to external impact, you should turn off the PC, remove the battery, and only power your ThinkPad via an AC adapter."